Great Britain Goalball Achieve Double Promotion

Great Britain Goalball Achieve Double Promotion

It has been a historic week for Great British Goalball as both the Men’s and Women’s GB squads have reached the final of the 2016 IBSA European B Championship, also securing promotion to the highest level of elite European Goalball, the European A League.

The Women’s squad have progressed undefeated since the group stages with 60 goals scored and only 8 conceded. On top of that, out of 6 games they have won 5 of them came in the form of a ‘mercy stoppage’. This is when a game is stopped early due to a team being ahead by 10 goals. In their last 4 games they have scored 41 and conceded 1…

The Men’s squad have just beaten favorites Slovenia 9-7 in the Semi-Finals having lost only a single game in the pool stages and accumulating a staggering 74 goals along the way. 4 of their victories also came in the form of a ‘mercy stoppage’. The Men’s Squad only achieved promotion to the B League last year making this progression all the more remarkable.

It’s an incredible showing from both squads who narrowly missed out on a place at Rio. Although the Goalball UK talent program is supported by Sport England, they currently don’t receive funding from UK Sport for their elite development with the teams only able to compete internationally thanks to private sponsorship and individual fundraising.
Both teams are playing their Finals tomorrow. The GB Women will be playing Germany at 2:00pm, and the GB Men will be playing Ukraine at 3:30pm.